Dysfunctional Court?

Fallone’s biggest issue is what he calls a “completely dysfunctional” court, hamstrung by incivility that even extends to “personal sniping in [published] opinions.”

Roggensack calls this “just a bunch of gossip at its worst” and says the court members are now getting along.

Few in the legal community seem to share this view. In March 2012, Justice Gableman wrote an essay for Wisconsin Interest referring to “the unfortunate cycle of hostility, recrimination and ill will that has plagued the court.” Bradley wrote a decision a month ago where she called it a “myth” that “our issues of workplace safety and work environment have somehow healed themselves.”

Geske says that she watched a recent hearing and that “the tension between the justices was palpable.”

Fallone lays much of the blame on Roggensack. “She is not willing to work on the problem and give it the attention it deserves.”

Roggensack notes that she wrote a letter to the other judges suggesting the entire court issue a joint apology and condemn the conduct in the Prosser-Bradley altercation. Abrahamson, however, slapped this down, calling the letter “instantly divisive.” Given that an investigation found probable cause to believe Prosser had violated the judicial code of conduct, it was striking that Roggensack instead blamed everyone on the court for what happened.

The conservative bloc has just enough votes to frustrate any attempt to address such issues. Their recusals killed the investigation against Prosser. When Crooks proposed retaining an expert in conflict resolution to assist the justices in addressing the workplace issues, Roggensack and her three fellow conservatives voted against it.

And in February 2012, Roggensack authored a proposal to end the court’s 13-year-old practice of discussing court administrative matters in open conference. Her proposal to close these proceedings to the public was passed by the conservative bloc.

As reported by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, Crooks called this “a major step backward” and “a terrible thing” to do. Gableman contended it would promote “consensus building and collegiality” among justices, which brought this rejoinder from Bradley: “To suggest that we would behave better behind closed doors is rather counterintuitive.”

Fallone criticizes the new policy. “They were public for 13 years, they were on Wisconsin Eye, people could attend. I think the public wants a transparent court.”

The loss of transparency will make it even more difficult for the public to evaluate the justices’ behavior. Prosser, moreover, is not the only member who has been investigated: Both Ziegler and Gableman have been the subject of ethical investigations.

A change of just one member could have a profound effect: Suddenly there would be a majority vote for open administrative hearings, for a stronger recusal rule regarding campaign donations, and for addressing the Prosser situation.

“The mere fact of changing the personalities on the court would cause the remaining justices to deal with one another,” Fallone says.

Roggensack says Fallone’s criticisms “create further injury to the court” and hurt its image with the public.

But Geske says court members need to recognize they have a problem. “The court has to rebuild confidence in what it is doing, because what it’s doing is not very good, and people are losing faith in the system.”

Well, since Bruce would probably like to break the conservative majority, I doubt he has much interest in pointing out the credentials of both candidates. He can make the case for Fallone simply by tying Roggensack to the Prosser-Bradley incident and letting that bring back all the emotions of Act 10 and the protests.

The first step to resolving any problem is to recognize that there is a problem. The Wisconsin Supreme Court used to have a reputation for integrity. People could disagree with the substance of the decisions that were made, but at least they did not believe that the decisions were for sale. Judge Geske certainly has a widespread and deserved reputation for integrity. Her opinion is that “people are losing faith in the system.” That is a major problem which Justice Roggensack prefers to ignore. That, in and of itself, is reason enough to elect Fallone to the high court. Presumably being a professor of Law at Marquette University establishes that Fallone has a good grasp of issues that might come before the Court, and his background and community service would add a much needed different perspective. Time for a change.

To George and Kyle: you’re free to characterize me anyway you like but the story does in a couple places note Fallone’s lack of experience relative to Roggensack. To wit:
To Scholz, the election “boils down to one word: experience.” The campaign released a very effective ad touting Roggensack’s 17 years experience presiding over 550 Supreme Court cases and 2,400 appellate cases. Fallone, by contrast, has never been a judge.

George Mitchell, what is silly is your apparent belief that people don’t know who you are. Are you getting paid to opine in this comment section? Give them their money back (or is it more of an in kind contribution? Then give us our court back.)

Okay, having taken another moment to read through everything you’ve written, you do mention the credentials. The weight you give the credentials is miniscule, but they are mentioned. I still think your story is slanted so much that it could be posted on Fallone’s campaign page.

A platform based on fixing dysfunction is pretty hollow. It would be different if Fallone could demonstrate a history as a collaborator or someone who brought divergent interests together. He’s not Geske, who is very skilled at that. OTOH a debate about judicial decision making (Fallone has written very clearly on this) would turn off even more of the public.

Interesting to note that the sheriff and special prosecutor found no evidence of any wrong doing by anyone. Also out fact that Bradley charge Prosser and Prosser put up his hand to stop her from attacking him. Should he have stopped her by putting up hands to her boobs?
Franklin Gimble is a partisan democrat, you might mention that.

Matt’s comments about George Mitchell trouble me. Rather than reacting to George’s comment, he takes the easy route by attacking the messenger. I sometimes agree with George and sometimes disagree, but always find him interesting and knowledgeable.

But that brings up the thing that most troubles me about Roggensack: she seems unable to make the thought experiment that asks, “if the parties were reversed but the issues were the same, would I vote the same way?” If the special prosecutor had decided the evidence supported charges against Bradley rather than Prosser would she still have scuttled the investigation by recusing herself?

Likewise if Doyle and the Democrats had passed significant legislation without sufficient legal notice, would she have still voted to uphold the legislature on the grounds it had effectively voted to change the law? Likewise, if a law passed by Democrats was blocked by a circuit judge would she have voted to overrule the injunction without waiting for a published opinion or hearing from the court of appeals?

Obviously we will never know the answer to each of these hypotheticals, but I believe the weight of the evidence says the probable answer is no.

How did Justice Bradley get to where Prosser was and in what mood was she? the investigators report said that she was yelling at him to get out of her office and some Justice’s said that she had her fist raised in a threatening manner and some did not. Anyway you call it it was an assault on Prosser. he should have pushed her away in the chest I guess just like if it had been Gableman coming at him.
Any way is is well established that Roggensack got between them to make peace.

Let’s start with George Bush II (drank his way through college, failed in the oil business, and used his father’s name to get into the baseball business) or Paul Ryan compared to Paul Krugman on economics.

Stacy, I suggest you put exactly that on a cover letter next time you apply for a job. Why on earth should you have to be qualified for a job? Experience and education are just “talking points”!

I’m not going to go the other direction and suggest that youth or new ideas don’t have their place. Everyone has to start somewhere. My issue is that Roggensack is being attacked for the actions of two coworkers, and on her judicial stances. I don’t see any insight regarding any staff conflicts at Marquette Law, or any critique of stances Fallone has ever taken. I’m not a big fan of judges on the highest court having never been a judge before. I’m willing to work past that, but ignoring it in favor of several pages on an incident involving two different people not up for reelection doesn’t do anything to address my concerns.

Roggensack didn’t put her hands on Bradley’s neck, nor did she charge at Prosser, so I’m not inclined to hold that against her. That brings my choice down to an experienced judge versus a law professor at a Jesuit university.

Prosser had some experience in a law office, but more as a legistlator. Fallone ‘also practices law’ but spends more time as a professor. (None the the bios I found would say how much or how long he’s practiced.) So as far as I can tell, Paul, your claim is that professors, by nature, are far more qualified at anything than politicians.

If I lived and voted in Wisconsin when Prosser was appointed in 1998, I wouldn’t have liked his lack of judicial experience. Ditto for when he was elected in 2001 (depending on who ran against him – I haven’t checked). By 2011, he’d had 13 years on the bench to judge, versus Kloppenburg’s career (not that any of that played a role in that particular race).

Maybe the deeper issue is that too many Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates don’t have any judicial experience before they’re appointed or elected the first time. Experience is a factor, but it’s not the only factor. Another factor is a candidate that claims (from his own website) “We need Justices that have the courage to be independent in the face of political pressure …” but who blogs regularly about the ACA and Act 10.

Go Fallone. Fallone should win. Last fall WI carried obama and senator baldwin by a large margin. WI is distancing itself from anyone tied to Walker. If Fallone wins, I think the governor job is wide open in 2014.

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